ostensible

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But notes of disillusion sound throughout this ostensible success story.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025

Decades of relying on the rules of an ostensible meritocracy, however, have proven one thing: that it's an illusory social ideal.

From Salon • Jan. 30, 2025

And leaders with the ostensible authority to drive systemic change have been “managed out” before being given the chance to do much of anything.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 19, 2025

But the movie is more effective as a grim, involving cop thriller than it is as an ostensible statement on the Order’s reverberations in the present.

From New York Times • Dec. 6, 2024

His ostensible reason, however, was to ask whether Mr. Woodhouse’s party could be made up in the evening without him, or whether he should be in the smallest degree necessary at Hartfield.

From "Emma" by Jane Austen